I read a record 40 books in 2017! In an exciting innovation this year, one of these books – The Stars Move Still – was written by my uncle. It’s a fictionalised portrayal of a forgotten American tragedy, and you can buy it now. Let’s take a look at some of the others…
Fiction
As is apparently traditional, I kicked off the year with a gift from Todd: Fates & Furies, two very different perspectives on one marriage which really does make you flip back and re-read sections again in a new light. I was also excited to read Zadie Smith’s new novel, Swing Time, although I found myself much more interested in the central relationship between the narrator and her childhood friend Tracey than the subplot with popstar Aimee.
Early on in the year I also ploughed through The Idiot – it’s only taken me a decade since Mr. Drummond first told me to read it during A-Level history class – and my main takeaway is that Lizaveta Prokofyevna is amazing. I absolutely love her outbursts, and she is very welcome at my literary dinner party. The book is also noteworthy for its discussion on criminality and liberalism, which could easily be written today. It was equally striking to find the actual terms ‘feminism’ and ‘human rights’ in Howards End (from 1910) although the plot and characters were not hugely compelling.
This year I continued my quest through Asimov’s interconnected series, starting with Susan Calvin origin stories in The Complete Robot (along with other memorable robot tales) and continuing through his Galactic Empire books. They are always enjoyable! I also read another two instalments in the Peter Grant series, Broken Homes (a big twist of an ending!) and Foxglove Summer (a detour into the countryside). It’s been a much longer gap since I last read anything from the His Dark Materials universe, but La Belle Sauvage – the first in a new trilogy – was a joy. The story is small in scope, but a confident return to the world of dæmons and Dust.
Abbi’s sci-fi recommendation, The Gone-Away World, was a post-apocalyptic wild ride with definite shades of Vonnegut. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which had sat forebodingly on my to-read list for a while, is a giant tome but with an incredible premise and story. Susanna Clarke crafts a compelling alternative history of England divided between Northern and Southern kings, with a lot of folklore, huge attention to historical detail and magic which is beautifully integrated into the world.
However, my favourite piece of speculative fiction this year was Hominids – a story about a Neanderthal man who accidentally crosses over from a parallel universe in which Neanderthals survived rather than humans. I feel a little guilty naming this as my favourite because as a work of literature it is definitely not the best. There’s a definite ‘genre sci-fi’ feel where interesting ideas and discussions take precedence over plots or characters, not to mention a clumsy rape scene which is not handled well. Despite all of this, I just really really wanted the whole thing to be true so that I could talk to a Neanderthal. The impact of small biological differences between the two species, such as a stronger Neanderthal sense of smell, are fascinating when the author imagines how their civilisation would differ as a result. And it left me feeling a bit bad about being a homo sapien. I will never use ‘neanderthal’ as an insult again.
I am pathetically bad at predicting where a plot is going to go, so it was exciting to be able to read The Girl on the Train and work out the killer for myself, albeit taking 70% of the book to get there. Eric Ambler’s Journey Into Fear was another straightforward thriller, and super enjoyable. Before The Fall was also a compulsive read, piecing together the mystery behind a plane crash, although the ending was a little anti-climactic as various open plot threads and red herrings were left hanging open.
I confess that I only made a note to read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas after Trump memorably said he was doing an ‘amazing job’, but everyone should take the time to read this searing first-hand account of American slavery. To continue the theme of reading good books for bad reasons: I was spurred into reading Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by a 1-star Goodreads review in which the mother of a 15-year old boy objects to the ‘sordid details’ he is ‘forced’ to read about for school. She finally compromises by telling him ‘which chapters to skip’. I guess I owe this woman something, because I deeply appreciated reading and learning more about Angelou’s amazing life, which I hadn’t realised the book was so closely based on.
Growing up in the UK I was never ‘forced’ to read American classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but I did so under my own free will this year and enjoyed it once the action picked up. The Passion of New Eve was a blast of Angela Carter: violent and sexual and liable to fuel the flames depending on how you see it. My mum suggested The Post-Office Girl, full of vivid descriptions of places and characters, and by the end I was quite keen to see whether the heroes would be able to pull off their crime or not. Exit West is a (somewhat obvious) metaphor for the era of global migration we are living through, but I actually found the birth and death of a relationship to be the most moving part. Finally, All The Light We Cannot See was a beautifully written and fast-paced intertwined story of a blind French girl and a German boy during World War Two. It made me sad about Brexit all over again.
Non-Fiction
The only American history I ever studied was all post-Civil War, and so I found American Nations to be incredibly helpful in understanding how the United States was first put together. I had no idea that the slave system of the Deep South migrated from Barbados, for example, or the sharp distinctions between the New England Puritans and the Virginian gentry which can be traced back to the English Civil War. Meanwhile, it is easy to forget the Spanish settlements in Florida and New Mexico which get lost in all of the ‘East to West’ narrative. I am sure you can quibble with exactly how Woodard carves up the country, but overall I have a much better grasp of its distinct cultures and histories.
Jumping forward in time to Lincoln, Team of Rivals – which took me a month to get through – is a very detailed account of his rise to the Presidency together with his leading competitors. It was well worth reading although I was expecting a little more historiography along with the narrative, and I still have some unanswered questions. For example, was Lincoln actually any good as a war leader? The Civil War certainly reads like a series of military disasters in the beginning, although perhaps the whole government would have disintegrated under anyone else.
Rounding out the American history, I also read The End of Inequality, a click-bait title for what is actually a fairly dry piece of academia on the (genuinely fascinating) 1962 Baker vs. Carr decision. Save yourself some time and listen to the More Perfect episode instead. I am also down on this book because in the last few pages they become fabulously stupid and wrong about international solutions to gerrymandering.
If you want a chillingly relevant insight into the ‘anti-politics’ mood, They Thought They Were Free is based on interviews with ten ordinary Nazis from a quiet, non-industrial German town conducted right after the Second World War. Similarly, not because they are Nazis but for a a comparable bottom-up perspective of the modern American right, I highly recommend Strangers In Their Own Land. Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist from Berkeley, does an excellent job talking to conservative voters from rural Louisiana, and smartly uses the issue of local environmental damage (from which these people suffer a great deal) to probe the question of why they continue to oppose any government protection or regulation.
Finally, if you want to panic about a different social nightmare, read The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee. As with his previous book on cancer, The Emperor Of All Maladies, this is a fascinating and informative exploration of the history and science of genetics. But I came away with a terrible sinking feeling about where genetic engineering is going to lead us. Alternative, there’s always the equally dark world of Plato’s The Laws, in which Plato (a) sneakily tries to make his own book compulsory reading material, (b) bans discounting (thanks, dude) and (c) limits his city’s population to 5040 citizens exactly. Good luck with that.
Catherine is showing off her nice iPhone X photos
The holidays are here, and as usual I’m stressing out to get all of my end-of-year blog content written before we leave on our Christmas trip and generate yet more content to blog about. I also managed to secure the contract to run this year’s family Christmas Quiz, which I don’t think I’ve been allowed to do since I was about five years old and asked questions like “name the the first book on the shelf in my bedroom”. So the pressure is on not to blow it this time.
Latkes!
These Christmassy and/or Hanukkahy photos (the ones with the nice focus) come from Catherine and AJ’s holiday celebratory gathering, during which Randi cooked latkes, we all made gingerbread cookies of varying degrees of crispness and whatever college football [sic] game was on in the background became infinitely more interesting when the pitch (do they call it a pitch?) started to fall apart. Play then stopped so that a harried operations dude could ‘fix it’ (by scattering coal dust?) and the TV commentators, lacking anything else to talk about, began to commentate earnestly on this repair job instead. “This guy’s doing amazingly. Look at that concentration under pressure. Oh… oh… we have his name!”
And once that was all over we watched The Room (worst film ever made) in preparation for seeing The Disaster Artist (retelling of how the worst film ever made was made) this week, which was amazing and very funny. It’s probably still funny without seeing The Room first, I guess, but I’m not sure why anyone would let that opportunity go by.
The incredibly meat-like Impossible Burger
In the last few weeks Randi and I also saw Voyeur (a documentary about journalist Gay Talese and a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades: it’s honestly a bit of a toss-up about which one has bigger problems) at a Dinner & Docs event. I also made a quick two-day trip to Palo Alto during which I was excited to try the Impossible Burger. It is a really impressive attempt to re-create a meat burger from genetically engineered plants, and it was totally delicious.
I do fear it moves us a step closer to the nightmare future where the next generation, able to enjoy all of the pleasures of eating meat without any of the downsides, smugly update their morality and then charge their parents and grandparents with meat-related crimes over bitter family dinners. I can see it all now. You hear that, next generation? I preempted your outrage.
At the 2017 Groupon Holiday Party
Last weekend we also partied at the Groupon holiday party at which T-Pain did not appear (I was indifferent about that, but the party was nice), played satisfying games of Dixit with Jason and Carrie (i.e. games I happened to do well in) and watched The Third Man in preparation for our trip to Vienna. This film taught me that everything in Vienna happens at a jaunty angle, and that if you want to go home again the British army is happy to buy you a plane ticket and drive you to the airport (#travelhacking). Finally, tonight we saw Star Wars: The Last Jedi with Toggolyn before we leave tomorrow. It seemed a bit long to me, but maybe that’s because my mind is already drifting to our travels, which start tomorrow. Tomorrow!
Merry Chrismukkah!
Willow
Last week we dogsat for Willow at Robert’s house, and by ‘we’ I mean ‘Randi’, although I was also there to play Carcassonne and buy ice-cream and watch Would I Like To You? and generally perform non Willow-related functions. (She is cute, though!)
We also got to see Todd and Carolyn’s astonishingly beautiful new flat (so many books!) which, as a wonderful added bonus, also contained Katie and Brandon on a Thanksgiving visit back to Chicago. Was great to catch up with them again.
One more pre-Thanksgiving snippet: the night that Randi, Amanda and I decided to watch a film together and settled on The Princess Bride, which I had heard lots of good things about but never actually seen. And indeed, not only did it prove to be a fun and offbeat adventure comedy, but I should be clued into many more memes in presentations at work now. (That’s assuming I can remember them after Amanda and I decided that we should start drinking the leftover brandy from the mulled wine afterwards, on the basis that brandy rhymes with Randi. Actual Randi went to bed instead.)
And now: Thanksgiving in California!
Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere…
A crowded Thanksgiving table
It’s a turkey usurping the White House and making himself King. It’s satire turkey.
Everyone and their less satirical turkeys
Not ready to go back to Chicago
Everyone made a big deal of insisting that the 35°C weather was ‘unseasonably warm’ for late November, but I believe that they are all lying and just trying to discourage more emigration to the coast. Regardless, we had a packed Thanksgiving 2017 in the sun which included an enormous quantity of cheese, a game of Smash Up, a packed schedule alternating between the pool and the hot tub, an unfairly-judged gingerbread turkey decorating competition, a sunset walk around the hills of Yorba Linda, brunch with the Leikens and mulled wine around the fire pit at night. Also, props to Andrew at Thanksgiving dinner proper for being the first person to ever explain the Hanukkah story to me without using any circular logic.
GUESS WHICH FESTIVAL COMES NEXT?!
Remember, remember!
The fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and plot
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Our very own bonfire
..but I do know an excellent reason to stop reciting the poem after the first verse, after which it gets considerably less fun. Still, to celebrate Bonfire Night in an uplifting and non-sectarian manner, we took Cat’s advice and constructed a magnificent bonfire of beans, sausages and mash, accompanied by amazing mulled wine and a Bake Off finale. Sadly it was missing a little Trump effigy sitting on top, but it was delicious and filling all the same.
Meanwhile the outside world is getting colder, rainier and generally more miserable. The other day it went as far as snowing, which tricked me into playing music from the Spotify Christmas playlists already. Too soon? But… snow!
A Whole New (German) World
One person who is escaping the Chicago winter is James, who (as I previously grumbled about) is joining the Citizens of Nowhere brigade by moving to Berlin. We saw him off with sushi and karaoke, although I didn’t stay long enough to find out if anyone sung 99 Luftballoons. I hope so. Last weekend I also had brunch with Jason and Carrie, who better be staying put.
This weekend we caught up with Lauri, who is excitingly throwing off the shackles of suburbia, and ate an ungodly amount of chilli at the 2017 edition of Ellen’s Master of Peppers competition. Randi was pushing me to work out what the nearest British equivalent would be – they have cake-making contests at some village fêtes, don’t they? – but I have to say there’s something admirably American and civic at the grassroots democracy to select a winner. It’s the sort of thing you imagine that seventeenth-century Puritans in small Massachusetts towns would endorse wholeheartedly.
Ellen tallies the votes
Other notes:
- Blue Planet II is increasing my respect for fish. Especially fish who can smash open clams on the side of rocks.
- I bought a new Kindle! I didn’t need a new Kindle in the slightest: my four-year old Kindle Voyage was still working perfectly, but I traded it in anyway (plus many additional bags of silver and gold) for a new Kindle Oasis out of sheer lust. In my defence, I am doing great on this year’s reading target. Bring on all the miserable weather you want, Chicago… I’ll be inside.
We’re putting the band back together!
We were extremely excited to host Cat in Chicago this weekend after a three-year absence. She was mostly here to reminisce with the staff of Windy City Café and snag an on-trend Macy’s handbag, but we also made time to leave the city for a quintessentially autumnal American afternoon of apple picking. (To be honest, I’m not actually sure if apple picking really is quintessentially American or not, but this was the hook that Catherine and AJ used to persuade me to come.) Setting aside my lack of interest in the apples themselves, at least until they could be converted into cider form, the orchard looked beautiful and there were a surprising array of apple picking extras including warming bonfires, wayward goats and a maze of corn. Think of it as the Hampton Court of Wisconsin.
Quintessential autumnal American experience
I choreographed this photo (instead of picking any apples)
On the apple picking wagon
Pumpkins!
I waited for everyone else to (eventually) join my escape from the Crazy Corn Maze
Immediately afterwards, we made our way to the Night of 1000 Jack-o’-Lanterns at the Chicago Botanic Garden for a Halloween-themed walk in the dark. The giant carved pumpkins were spectacular, and the garden’s already-adorable model railway section was made even better with spooky little trains. I am warmer towards Halloween than I used to be, though I still think it’s something we should just leave to Americans to do best.
More pumpkins!
The best pumpkin
Cat, Randi, warm cider
Trying to wring out as much time with James as I can before he ups and leaves for Berlin, we saw Blade Runner 2049 together on Wednesday night. As someone with good but not great memories of the original plot, I thought it did a decent job of working as a standalone film, although [mild spoiler warning] there was a fair bit of contortion necessary to avoid ever quite confirming that Deckard is himself a replicant although of course he is. Also, the obligatory evil CEO is given the most ridiculously impractical office yet, in which everything is not only kept at very low lighting but also surrounded by a deep pool of water. Just remember, prospective super-villains: not only does someone have to design this in the first place, but a whole team will be necessary just to feed the fish, rescue any dropped electronics and clean the filtration system.
At some point I feel I should mention that Joe and Julie have faithfully come over every Sunday for the past nine weeks to watch the new series of Bake Off with us and shout at Prue Leith. So no spoilers until next weekend, please. I need to savour the exquisitely compressed emotional range of all the contestants, forever bouncing between feeling ‘a little disappointed’ and ‘pretty chuffed’, for it makes me feel that all is right with the world. We should leave Halloween to the Americans, and they should leave stoicism to us.
Todd on 2024: My Year In Books: “I know what Glass Hotel is about. It’s about a bunch of loosely connected, barely developed characters, with their timelines…” Jan 4, 17:17
